29029 Climb for Justice

Accountability Counsel’s Founder and Executive Director Natalie Bridgeman Fields accepted 29029’s challenge to climb the vertical elevation of Mt. Everest by summiting a mountain in Vermont 17 times in 36 hours. She took on this audacious challenge to honor 17 advocates around the world who inspire our work at Accountability Counsel. These are people who are standing up for justice for themselves and those around them in the face of abuses financed from abroad. Here are their stories.

1. Castin, Haitian farmer leading collective for justice

We honor Milostène Castin for his determination and endurance, as he works tirelessly with us to make sure his community of 4,000 farmers and their families achieve justice after being forced from their land and driven into poverty.

Castin - Haiti

First, we honor Milostène Castin, whose community of 3,500 Haitian farmers were forced from their land with little warning to make way for a massive industrial park. Castin organized into a collective with other former-farmers to demand their rights.

Castin - Haiti

The industrial park was built on 250 hectares of the most fertile agricultural land in northeast Haiti. The produce cultivated on that land provided the primary source of income, as well as crucial food, to those farmers and their families.

Castin - Haiti

Through a complaint to the Inter-American Development Bank, the farmers initiated a dialogue with the Haitian government and the bank to negotiate solutions for their displacement. Castin is working tirelessly to ensure they receive just compensation through this process.

2. Gloria, Colombian advocate defending her community

We honor Gloria Molina for her brave advocacy defending the rights of her community in Colombia, where we challenge the noise pollution from an airport expansion with a 24-hour flight schedule that is causing children to go deaf and experience developmental delays from insomnia.

Gloria - Colombia

Our second honoree is Gloria Molina. We honor Gloria for her brave advocacy in defending the human rights of her community in Colombia, who are adversely impacted by the El Dorado International Airport Expansion Project.

Gloria - Colombia

With jets roaring just feet above homes all day, the constant loud noises have caused serious health harms to the local community of Fontibón, including children whose development are impacted as they suffer from hearing damages.

Gloria - Colombia

With jets roaring just feet above homes all day, the constant loud noises have caused serious health harms to the local community of Fontibón, including children whose development are impacted as they suffer from hearing damages.

3. Alfred, Liberian leader of Green Advocates, human rights defender

We honor Alfred Brownell, our close partner and a fearless human rights and environmental defender from Liberia who has survived physical attacks for his work to ensure the land and natural resources of communities are protected.

Alfred - Liberia

Third, we honor Alfred Brownell who is our close partner and a fearless human rights and environmental defender from Liberia. Alfred has endured brutal physical attacks by paramilitaries in his work to defend the human rights, land and natural resources of local communities.

Alfred - Liberia

Alfred advocated for the hundreds of Liberians, including indigenous smallholder farmers and charcoal producers, as their rights were severely undermined by a biomass company, known as Buchanan Renewables Energy.

Alfred - Liberia

The company practices of Buchanan Renewables have not only contaminated community drinking water and caused negative climate impacts, but they have also abused local workers. As a result of Alfred’s tireless advocacy, an Overseas Private Investment Corporation investigation vindicated the community’s concerns.

4. Vladlena, advocate challenging corporate abuse in Ukraine

We honor Vladlena Martsynkevych as she partners with us to raise problems around the largest poultry facility in Ukraine, where social and environmental impacts are making life unbearable for neighboring villagers.

Vladlena - Ukraine

Fourth, we are honoring Vladlena Martsynkevych, an advocate who is challenging corporate abuse in Ukraine. Vladlena is calling for adequate environmental and human rights protections in regards to the largest poultry facility in the country: Vinnytsia Poultry Farm.

Vladlena - Ukraine

Vinnytsia Poultry Farm holds over 17 million chickens, and it is seeking to double the capacity of its farm and associated agro-industrial operations. The lack of accountability surrounding this massive poultry facility is making life untenable for neighboring villagers.

Vladlena - Ukraine

Villagers are not only exposed to dust and foul odors at all hours of the day, but their homes and roads are also being damaged by heavy traffic vehicles. Vladlena works to elevate the health and environmental concerns of her community and demand corporate accountability.

5. Battsengel, Mongolian nomadic herder defending his culture

We honor Battsengel Lkhamdoorov, a nomadic camel herder who led his community to achieve historic agreements to defend their resources, livelihood, and culture in the face of threats from a massive gold and copper mine in the Mongolian South Gobi Desert.

Battsengel - Mongolia

For lap 5, we are honoring Battsengel Lkhamdoorov, a nomadic camel who led his community to achieve historic agreements to defend their resources, livelihood, and culture from a massive gold and copper mine in the Mongolian South Gobi Desert.

Battsengel - Mongolia

The Oyu Tolgoi mine is one of the world’s largest copper mines and accounts for nearly ⅓ of Mongolia’s GDP. The mine’s immense water usage and associated infrastructure depleted wells and degraded pastureland, jeopardizing the herders’ traditional way of life.

Battsengel - Mongolia

Battsengel and his community raised concerns to the World Bank, an investor in the mine. This complaint initiated a dialogue between the herders, mining company Rio Tinto, and local government officials. After 4 years of negotiations, the parties reached historic agreements to remedy harm.

Battsengel - Mongolia

These agreements have already yielded more than 50 new compensation packages for herders and their families, as well as transformative scholarships to help children transitioning to new livelihoods. We are continuing work to ensure these agreements are implemented well.

We honor Shankar Limbu, our partner in advocating that Indigenous Peoples’ rights are respected in remote mountainous areas of Nepal, where transmission lines are forcibly displacing local people.

Shankar - Nepal

Sixth, we honor Shankar Limbu, our partner in advocating that the rights of Indigenous Peoples are respected in remote mountainous areas of Nepal, where transmission lines are forcibly displacing local people.

Shankar - Nepal

Shankar is a Nepalese advocate and Secretary of LAHURNIP, which supports Indigenous communities in Nepal to demand their rights, including to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC).

Shankar - Nepal

Just this week, LAHURNIP and Accountability Counsel supported communities to file a complaint to the European Investment Bank about a transmission line passing over their homes, lands, forests, and community spaces. They hope to negotiate solutions addressing the lack of FPIC, as well as health and environmental concerns about the project.

Shankar - Nepal

We have also partnered with LAHURNIP to support communities affected by the World Bank funded Khimti Dhalkebar transmission line. Our advocacy has resulted in a record of the abuses and violations experienced by the communities, including in an investigation report from the Bank's own accountability office.

We honor Mary Tanti*, a young woman who plucks tea on a plantation in Assam, India. We are supporting her struggle to be heard as she and other tea workers try tirelessly to meet their quotas under abusive living, working, and labor conditions on the plantation.

Mary - India

For lap 7, we are honoring Mary* an anonymized woman who endures slave-like conditions as she picks tea leaves in Assam, India without protection from pesticides, while suffering from malnutrition and inhumane living conditions. Workers on the plantation are demanding justice despite risks of retaliation.

Mary - India

The tea plantations are majority-owned by Tata Group, and the World Bank's IFC is an investor. The IFC’s accountability office found that living and working conditions were substandard, wages were insufficient, and the plantation’s shareholder model had failed due to lack of access to information.

Mary - India

Together with Pajhra, Nazdeek, and People's Action for Development we launched Project AccountabiliTEA to bring attention to the labor violations and neglect on the plantations, and to call on the Bank to remedy this abuse. Nine years after the Bank's initial investment, abuse continues, and we are continuing to demand justice for women like Mary.

8. Gabino, defending rights of his Indigenous community in Mexico

We honor Gabino Vicente, a leader in Oaxaca, Mexico, whom we supported to successfully defend a local spring from a private investment that would have polluted drinking water and destroyed a cultural resource for four Indigenous communities.

Gabino - Mexico

Our eighth honoree is Gabino Vicente, a leader in Oaxaca, Mexico whom we supported to successfully defend a local spring from a private investment that would have polluted drinking water and destroyed a cultural resource for four Indigenous communities.

Gabino - Mexico

When a hydroelectric project threatened to destroy the Arroyo Sal, a critical water source and ecosystem for communities in Oaxaca, Gabino came to us for help preventing further harm. With our support, the communities decided to defend their rights through a complaint to OPIC’s accountability office.

Gabino - Mexico

Gabino led the communities through negotiations with the project operator and investors, with the Mexican government as an official witness. Through this process, the parties reached an agreement to stop the project. It remains stopped today and the Arroyo Sal is again a thriving ecosystem. This is the first example we know of where Indigenous communities used a dispute resolution process to make their right to demand free, prior, and informed consent meaningful.

We honor Abubakar Mohamed Ali, the Chairman of Save Lamu, our local partner working to defend his local community in coastal Kenya from the grave impacts of a coal-fired power plant. The project threatens the fragile ecosystem of mangroves and the livelihoods and culture of local Indigenous and traditional farmers and fisherfolk.

Abubakar - Kenya

Our ninth honoree is Abubakar Mohamed Ali, the Chairman of Save Lamu. Abubakar is our local partner in Kenya working to defend his community from the grave impacts of what would be the largest coal-fired power plant in East Africa.

Abubakar - Kenya

The Lamu Port and Power Plant project poses significant environmental and health risks to the local community; it threatens the invaluable ecosystem of mangroves as well as the livelihoods and traditional ways of life of more than 3,000 artisanal fisherfolk and Indigenous farmers.

Abubakar - Kenya

As the project is still in its early stages, we are supporting Abubakar and Save Lamu to form a civil-society coalition throughout Kenya, and to build a campaign to stop the project and effectively prevent harm towards the Lamu community.

10. Lily, Peruvian Indigenous rights activist and lawyer

We honor Lily La Torre, an Indigenous rights lawyer whose decades of wisdom supported our work to amplify the voices of Shipibo Indigenous villages in Peru facing harm from repeated oil spills in rivers that are their only drinking water.

Lily - Peru

For lap 10, we honor Lily La Torre, an Indigenous Rights lawyer whose decades of wisdom supported our work to amplify the voices of Shipibo Indigenous villages in the Peruvian Amazon facing harm from repeated oil spills in rivers that are their only drinking water.

Lily - Peru

In 2009, we worked with Lily to support Shipibo Indigenous communities in their struggle to hold Maple Energy and its investors accountable for the harmful impacts of Maple’s operations. The communities suffered seven oil spills between 2009-2012, leading to severe human rights and environmental abuses, including use of forced labor to clean up a spill.

Lily - Peru

This case is evidence of the business case for entering dispute resolution in good faith and investing in strong accountability offices. After the CAO process failed, the communities continued to suffer from oil spills and again peacefully occupied the oil wells in September 2012. Maple claimed that “the action has slowed its production of low sulphur crude oil” from the oil fields near the communities.

11. Sarah, Liberian challenging gender-based violence

We honor Sarah Monopoloh, a brave Liberian woman speaking out about sexual abuse she suffered as a result of an agribusiness company’s harmful practices. We stand with Sarah to seek remedy and ensure that her story has reached decision-makers whose misconduct led to her abuse.

Sarah - Liberia

For lap 11, we honor Sarah Monopoloh, a Liberian woman who took a stand against gender-based violence. Sarah spoke out about the sexual abuse she suffered as a result of the harmful company practices of Buchanan Renewables.

Sarah - Liberia

The Buchanan Renewables (BR) case in Liberia had a disproportionate impact on local women. Several female agriculture workers reported that their male supervisors sexually abused them and retaliated if they refused their supervisors’ sexual advances.

Sarah - Liberia

BR employees also abused subsistence charcoal producers by demanding bribes and sex from women to access wood the company had promised to give them for free. We stand with Sarah to seek remedy and ensured that her story reaches decision-makers whose misconduct led to her abuse.

We honor Dmitry Lisitsyn, whose courageous work on Sakhalin Island, Russia has exposed harm to local people and the environment from one of the world’s largest oil and gas projects.

Dmitry - Russia

Our twelfth honoree is Dmitry Lisitsyn, whose courageous work on Sakhalin Island, Russia has exposed harm to local people and the environment from one of the world’s largest oil and gas projects.

Dmitry - Russia

Communities living near the the Sakhalin II integrated oil and gas project in the Russian Far East have suffered from exposure to harmful pollutants, threats to community safety and food security, and the loss of local environmental resources. Dmitry won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2011 in part for his work with local Sakhalin communities to address the harmful impacts of Sakhalin II.

Dmitry - Russia

Learn more about how this case informed our policy advocacy with the OECD National Contact Point system, which exists to hold banks responsible for their role in financing abuses that violate the OECD Guidelines on our case page.

13. Eddie, Activist from Papua New Guinea, defending community rights

We honor Eddie Tanago Paine, an activist from Papua New Guinea whom we partnered with to successfully amplify the voices of palm oil farmers who were being harmed by a World Bank Project. As a result of Eddie’s tireless work, the Bank redesigned the project to take community concerns into account.

Eddie - PNG

Our 13th honoree is Eddie Tanago Paine, an activist from Papua New Guinea. We partnered with Eddie to amplify the voices of local palm oil farmers who were being harmed by a World Bank-funded smallholder agricultural project in Oro Province.

Eddie - PNG

The palm oil project failed to consult with affected Indigenous Peoples or gain their consent beforehand. Instead of benefiting the local community, the project degraded critical forests and grasslands and extracted burdensome levies from local palm oil growers.

Eddie - PNG

As a result of Eddie’s tireless work, the voices of smallholder farmers and communities in Oro Province were heard by key decision-makers. As a result of dogged advocacy, the World Bank redesigned the project to give community members a voice in the project affecting them.

14-17. Team Accountability Counsel

For the final stretch, we’re honoring four members of Accountability Counsel’s incredible staff, representing each of our four teams. Each team works together to achieve remedy for communities around the world and boldly shift global systems toward greater justice in international finance.

Stephanie - AC Policy

First up, our Policy Associate Stephanie Amoako. Stephanie has been influential in making U.S. development policy to be more just and accountable. Most recently, she was instrumental in including accountability language in the BUILD Act, legislation to create a new U.S. development finance institution that recently passed Congress.

Samer - AC Research

Second, we have Samer Araabi, whose unique background in humanitarian assistance on the Syrian border and in software engineering fuels our Research department. He is leading the creation of a powerful database of every accountability office complaint ever filed, which will serve grassroots advocacy and systems change.

Siddharth - AC Communities

Next, we are honoring South Asia Consultant Siddharth Akali, who exemplifies our respect-based approach as he works in close partnership with communities in Nepal to challenge human rights and environmental abuses in places where speaking up can come with harsh retribution.

Caitlin - AC Communities

Our final honoree is Global Communities Attorney Caitlin Daniel. Caitlin embodies the “last mile” commitment we make to our partners, living for months at a time in the Mongolian South Gobi Desert and Nepal to provide deep support during critical moments of our communities’ cases.